Ooopsie She Fired Somebody Else
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| Tue, 09-09-2008 - 11:29pm |
She just has a problem separating her personal and professional lives:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122092043531812813.html?mod=special_page_campaign2008_topbox
In Palin's Past, the Personal Got Political
May Have Become
Grounds for Firing
September 9, 2008; Page A6
WASILLA, Alaska -- Sarah Palin and John Bitney go way back. They were in the same junior-high band class. Mr. Bitney was a key aide in Gov. Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. When she took office, she gave Mr. Bitney a job as her legislative director, and a few months later stood beside him at a news conference and praised his work.
"Whatever you did, you did it right," she told Mr. Bitney and his team.
Seven weeks later she fired Mr. Bitney for what her spokeswoman now describes as "poor job performance."
What happened in between? According to Mr. Bitney, Gov. Palin got a call from another old friend, Scott Richter, informing her that his wife, Debbie Richter, and Mr. Bitney were having an affair. Mr. Bitney had kept that secret from the governor, even as he told her of his divorce, he said.
Allies of Republican presidential nominee John McCain like to point out that his running mate is the governor of the largest state in the union. But at times, Alaska seems more like a small town, run by folks with overlapping professional, political and personal ties that can be difficult to untangle.
Gov. Palin and her husband, Todd Palin, were also close friends of the Richters. Ms. Richter served as treasurer of Gov. Palin's gubernatorial campaign and her inaugural committee. After taking office, Gov. Palin put Ms. Richter in charge of the Permanent Fund Dividend Division at the Department of Revenue. The fund allocates oil revenues to Alaska residents; this year each Alaskan is expected to receive $3,269.
The two couples owned property together on Safari Lake, north of Wasilla, according to Gov. Palin's financial disclosure reports. Each couple had its own cabin on the land, where the families would vacation side by side, according to Ms. Richter. In the most recent disclosure form, the governor reported that she and Mr. Palin now own the property with Mr. Richter alone.
"They were, you know, professionally my bosses, but they were my friends," Mr. Bitney said of the Palins. "And so what caused them to want me to leave the governor's office was my relationship, my divorce, my dating a woman with whom they had a personal relationship."
When Gov. Palin was notified by Mr. Richter in July 2007, she called Mr. Bitney into her office. She already knew he was going through a divorce, and, Mr. Bitney said, he had "led her to believe there weren't going to be any more surprises."
Mr. Bitney said the governor "indicated to me that she was hurt, disappointed and upset, and that she didn't know what she wanted to do."
A few days later, Gov. Palin's chief of staff "indicated to me that I needed to leave the governor's office," Mr. Bitney said.
"I understand why I had to go," Mr. Bitney said. "I accept that. I was in the governor's office and a trusted adviser. I betrayed that trust by not being forthcoming about what was going on in my personal life."
Gov. Palin's spokesmen have given conflicting explanations for Mr. Bitney's dismissal. At the time, the governor's office cited "personal reasons" for Mr. Bitney's "amicable" departure, according to contemporaneous news reports. Last week, Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the governor's office, said "John Bitney was dismissed because of his poor job performance." She declined to provide further details.
Mr. Bitney said he was shocked to learn that the governor had had any complaints about his performance as her liaison to the legislature. "That's the first time I've heard that," he said when told of Ms. Leighow's statement.
In May 2007, less than two months before she fired him, Gov. Palin had publicly declared the legislative session -- Mr. Bitney's major responsibility -- "wildly successful."
After he was fired, Mr. Bitney landed a job as chief of staff to Alaska House Speaker John Harris, another Republican. "I don't think it was fair, but that's just my personal opinion," Mr. Harris said of Mr. Bitney's dismissal.
Soon after she was elected mayor of Wasilla, a town of 9,800 people about 45 miles north of Anchorage, in 1996, Gov. Palin dismissed the town department heads, including the police chief, the city planner and the finance director.
State officials are investigating allegations that Gov. Palin fired the Alaska public-safety commissioner she had appointed because he refused to dismiss a state trooper involved in a messy divorce with the governor's sister. The governor has denied any impropriety in the case.
"Gov. Palin only makes personnel decisions based on one thing -- what is best for the people of Alaska," McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in a written response to questions about Mr. Bitney's dismissal. Ms. Stapleton was the governor's press secretary when Mr. Bitney was fired. She declined to comment on whether Mr. Bitney's romantic life played a role in the governor's decision.
Mr. Richter didn't respond to several phone messages left on his cellphone. Last week he filed a motion asking a state court to seal the record of his divorce proceedings. The court denied his request.
Ms. Richter said in an interview that she understood why her old friend fired her boyfriend. Gov. Palin "was blindsided, hit at 70 miles per hour from behind," said Ms. Richter, who married Mr. Bitney on Aug. 23 and now goes by Debbie Bitney.
The couple is no longer very close to the Palins, Mr. Bitney said. "We've all gone our separate ways," he said.>>>

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To the point of slamming her for having morals are we?
OK, Dr. Cox (who is a liberal on that show, which always makes me smile when I see your nick pop up), how 'bout these apples? Ought we to "applaud" stuff like this, too? :
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has sturck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling Begging
((((((Essentially, Campbell had been unhelpful to the campaign at the very least. But all of a sudden he became one of Palin's biggest supporters. And he was then promoted to be one of the two highest-ranking state National Guard officials in the country.)))))
This is getting really stupid now. What are we supposed to be dumb and blind? It's insulting that Mccain/Palin think that they can get away with bribary, extortion, bullying, and lying. Can you imagine the chaos in the WH if he is elected? Nothing would get done unless he appeased the cronies and crooks. Talk about thieves in the temple. Thank God the real truth is coming out now.
LOL LOL Oh come now, you make it tooooo
Questions remain on Palin vetting
By DAN JOLING
updated 11:29 a.m. ET, Sat., Sept. 6, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - John McCain's presidential campaign did not speak with the Alaska House speaker and other leading Republicans before McCain tapped Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
The low-profile vetting allowed McCain to spring Palin onto the national scene uncolored by media scrutiny. But it has left the campaign open to criticism that McCain did not fully explore her qualifications.
"I haven't heard of anybody being contacted, not that that's bad," said John Harris, speaker of the state House of Representatives. "I just haven't heard of anybody."
The subject is now closed, said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.
"Gov. Palin was fully vetted as previously described and we are no longer commenting on the vetting process," Bounds said Friday. "She was selected, is qualified and is ready to serve."
Attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., who led the review for the McCain campaign, and told The Associated Press earlier this week that Palin underwent a "full and complete" examination.
But Harris, state Senate president Lyda Green and Alaska Republican chairman Randy Ruedrich said no one called them in advance to talk about the governor.
"I've not heard of one person who was talked to," said Green, who lives in Palin's hometown of Wasilla and has feuded with the governor.
Palin also has had a rocky relationship with Ruedrich, whom she tried to oust as party chairman.
It was the same story at one of Palin's previous elected offices. Mary Bixby, executive assistant to Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller, said no one contacted the office for information about Palin before her selection. Since the announcement, the only attention had been from reporters.
"Nobody has been here," Bixby said.
Culvahouse said Palin's review, like others, began with two dozen people sifting through information from public sources: speeches, financial records, tax information, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces.
For Palin, the team studied online archives of the state's largest newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News.
Palin answered a personal data questionnaire with 70 "very intrusive" questions, Culvahouse said, and was asked to submit years of tax returns. Culvahouse conducted a lengthy interview.
"They obviously felt like they did enough research and were comfortable," Harris said.
Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said Friday that campaigns should be more diligent about examining the record and background of lesser-known candidates than well-known ones.
"Any sensible due diligence would include not just looking at the public record, not just looking at the newspaper, but also talking to people," he said.
When Democrat Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, she was not fully vetted, Brady said. Questions about her husband's financial holdings and tax returns became a central issue in that election, won in a landslide by Ronald Reagan.
Since the Palin announcement, snippets of potentially damaging information have dribbled out — Todd Palin's youthful intoxicated driving conviction, the pregnancy of the Palin's unmarried teenager daughter, Palin's lack of international traveling, reality vs. hype on her effectiveness as a governor.
"The question is whether all these other little shortcomings are going to accumulate into a not-such-a-great picture," Brady said.
The process does, however, reflect on McCain's decision making. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in March, giving him plenty of time to investigate potential running mates. Barack Obama did not clinch the Democratic nomination until June after battling Hillary Rodham Clinton in an extended primary campaign.
"You've got months to make this decision," Brady said.
He called it astonishing that with so many unknowns about Palin, more was not done. Brady said he suspects McCain did not seriously consider Palin until just before he picked her.
Still, he said, "This is one where there was time to do it right."
In the end, it may not matter, Brady said.
"She's worked out pretty well," he said of Palin. "She gave a heck of a speech."
___
Associated Press writers Matt Volz and Gene Johnson contributed to this story.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised--
What would you expect from another "good ol' boy" wearing lipstick?
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http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM
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Yes, and its working.
PaRrIs
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